Conventional computer systems operate software applications that assist users in document processing and modifying information contained such documents. Such software applications are commonly used to perform tasks for computer users such as word processing, graphic design, image processing and the like. Typically, these software applications provide users with a variety of tools that facilitate the modification of data within a document. More specifically, conventional software applications provide tools enabling a user to select data, such as text or image data, within a document and to manipulate and/or delete the selected data (e.g., highlighting a text string in a word processing document and subsequently deleting the highlighted text, or changing the font of the highlighted text).
As another example, various conventional software applications include redaction tools that modify, or mark-up, text data within a document such that the data is unrecognizable and/or irretrievable by other users who have subsequent access to the document. Generally, such conventional redaction tools modify text within a document resulting in a ‘black box’ or similar rectangular graphical barrier that serves as a place-filler in lieu of the redacted text. An example application of a conventional software redaction tool involves the redaction of sensitive information contained in electronic documents as part of the discovery phase during litigation.
Other document processing technologies include search features such as find and replace that allow a user to input a text string that a document processing program such as a word processor can search for and find all occurrences in the documents. Such programs typically show each specific occurrence separately, one by one, and ask the user if he or she desires to replace the found text with user-specified replacement text. In this manner, the user can replace strings in a document with the replacement text. Some find and replace utilities allow the user to select a “replace all” feature that if selected, causes the conventional processing to perform an automatic replacement on all occurrences of the user specific text with the user specified replacement text.